Upgrading from 12700 to 14600k in MSFS would likely boost performance.
Upgrading from 12700 to 14600k in MSFS would likely boost performance.
Hey there, I've been thinking about upgrading from a 12700 to a 14600k. Since the base clock speed is much higher with the newer chipset, could that really boost performance? I'm not super familiar with the latest parts yet, but I'm curious—especially for MSFS where main thread limits are an issue. The motherboard and RAM don't need changing, so it sounds like a focused upgrade. Let me know if you want more details!
It seems the results weren't as strong as expected. I watched a video showing the 10900k, 13700k, and 14700k in MSFS with an RTX 4090, which improved performance by about 20fps on average between the 10900k and 14700k. While it's not a perfect match, I wouldn't expect a major boost from going from 12700 to 14600k, especially with your RTX 2070.
I reached a similar conclusion after examining newer low-k chips. It seems my main worry is about the Performance-core Base Frequency with my current non-K processor—12700-2.1 GHz and 14600K-3.5 GHz both reach higher speeds, but I’m still unsure if they maintain that performance during a gaming session.
They maintain it. You can verify this during gameplay. Generally, after about 30 seconds they reach their full boost. They rarely run at base clock while under pressure unless severely overheating. I’d choose the 12700k because it offers more performance cores than the 14600k, which is essentially around 13600k—sometimes a bit faster (usually 0.1–0.5%). It’s just the same CPU but with a higher base clock. This change doesn’t really matter. The 12700k is likely to perform better overall since the 12th gen isn’t significantly lagging compared to the 13th. Plus, it has two extra performance cores, making it similar in terms of single-core speed to the i7 and i5. @Hinjima’s comparison highlights this clearly; the 14700k is the only 14th-gen model that stands apart from the 13th, offering four extra E cores and a noticeable difference between i7 and i5 performance. However, the i5 may lose two cores, possibly resulting in just a slight speedup (around 1–2 frames per second).
I meant the 12,700 not the 12,700k. That 12,700k would be identical performance.